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How To Choose The Best Vacuum Food Sealer

It is a known fact that over time food will eventually decompose, rot and become unusable. Vacuum sealers are an effective tool to combat this problem. Vacuum food sealers are used to package and preserve fruits, vegetables, meats and more. Vacuum sealers can often increase the shelf life by up to five times. Vacuum sealers come in two varieties, chamber sealers and external sealers. Both types of vacuum sealers are easy to use. There are a few questions you will want to ask yourself before purchasing a vacuum sealer.

How much will you be vacuum sealing per day, week or month?

The amount of products that you vacuum seal will help determine the machine you should use. Most external vacuum sealers, such as the Food Vac or Fast Vac, are designed for low to medium-volume packing. They are great for packaging a few to dozens of items a day. Chamber sealers are designed for medium to high-volume packaging. These are great for packaging dozens to hundreds of items per day.

What will you be vacuum sealing?

The item you will be packaging can make a big difference in choosing the machine you will need. If you are packaging something that requires 99.9% of the air to be removed, you will be able to use either an external or a chamber sealer. If you are packaging something that is delicate, such as potato chips, you will need a chamber sealer with an inert gas kit.

An inert gas kit is used to help preserve and package delicate products that require some air to be left in the bag. Removing 99.9% of the air in a bag of potato chips would crush and damage the contents. Chamber sealers have the ability to remove air, say 75%, and replace the remaining air (say 25%) with an inert gas such as Nitrogen. It is important to remove all the oxygen to prevent spoilage.

What size of chamber do you need (chamber sealers only)?

External vacuum sealers are great for packaging awkward sized products. If you are using a chamber sealer, you will want to be sure there is enough room in the chamber. Our chamber sealers are available in several sizes. If you suspect you may need a larger machine down the road, but will only be packaging smaller items for now, our Minipack chamber sealers include plastic slabs designed to take up excess space. The less air the machine has to remove, the less taxing it is on the motor.

Will you be cooking with vacuum sealed products?

Many people like to use a vacuum sealer to package complete meals for cooking. These meals can be sold at a retail store. Many people, as a hobby, like to package their own meals for use at home. These meals are then boiled in a pot. This method of cooking is referred to as Sous Vide. If you plan on cooking with a vacuum sealed meal, you will want to use bags capable of being boiled. These are referred to as "boilable barrier" bags.

Which bags will you need?

Many vacuum sealer bags are interchangeable between machines. We do offer, however, bags designed specifically for external vacuum sealers and chamber vacuum sealers. You can find our external bags here and our chamber bags here.